The Void Without and Within
The Void Without and Within
Infinity
is a concept of something that is without limit and without end. Yet, with our
human sensibilities, it is hard to wrap our minds around because everything
that we know is limited. We grow up, seasons pass, relationships change, and
even people and beloved pets eventually leave us. Everything we experience has an
expiration date. So how do we even begin to understand anything that goes on
without end? How can a finite mind comprehend the infinite?
As
a child I wanted to become a Marine Biologist. The vastness of the ocean
frightened me as much as it intrigued me, and there is still so much of it that
has yet to be explored. I would spend hours reading and watching programs about
space and making dioramas of the solar system with Styrofoam balls, but those
things made it all feel tangible. Carl Sagan explains this beautifully in his
book, Cosmos. “The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human
understanding…they remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that
understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival.” That wonder
drove my thirst for knowledge.
Ancient
philosophers like Aristotle understood that the Earth was round, but placed it
at the center of the Universe. One reason was that if Earth moved around the
Sun, observers should see nearby stars appear to shift as Earth changed
positions in orbit. (Astronomy 2e, p.60)
This phenomenon known as stellar parallax, could not be detected during their
time, which seemed to support the geocentric model, when in actuality the stars
were much further away than they could comprehend.
In
his book Pale Blue Dot, Carl Sagan writes, “if you lived two or three
millennia ago, there was no shame in holding that the Universe was made for us.
Defending such a position today amounts to willful disregard of the evidence,
and flight from self-knowledge.... We long to be here for a purpose, even
though, despite much self-deception, none is evident.” What would it mean if we were not at the
center of everything? Would we somehow be diminished? We have come a long way
since the geocentric model, yet humans still have the urge to focus on the
cosmos from our own limited perspective. In To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey
of Cosmic Discovery, Neil deGrasse Tyson states, “from a sun-centered
perspective, Mercury doesn't move backwards either. There's nothing unusual
about Mercury's movements during “Mercury retrograde” other than the human urge
to assign it meaning – an urge traceable to the times of ignorance when we all
thought the Universe revolved around us.”
Perhaps
this tendency isn’t about ignorance, but as Sagan suggested, about meaning. It
could be uncomfortable to consider our planet is not the biggest, our Sun is
not the largest or most massive star, or even that our galaxy is just one of billions
of other galaxies. When we try to see the whole, it forces us to take a closer
look at ourselves. For the average person trying to understand the enormity of
space could possibly make them feel insignificant and seriously question what
it’s all for.
Beliefs
provide meaning for life. When a core belief is challenged, a psychological
phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance occurs. Cognitive dissonance is the
discomfort that happens when a personal belief is met with new information.
Perhaps this could be the reason why humans have placed themselves in the
center of the cosmos. If we have spent thousands of years building our sense of
meaning around the fact that humans are special in the Universe, only to
discover that we are not; what else could we be wrong about? The answers to
those questions may be hard to accept.
One
of my favorite sites is https://scaleofuniverse.com/en.
It is a tangible and fascinating way to experience the entirety of the Universe,
both the great and the small. For me personally, the incomprehensible vastness
brings me a great sense of peace. Through billions of years, countless planets
and stars, and the seemingly random chaos that created everything, I am here at
this time experiencing it all. The atoms that make up my body have traveled an
unimaginable distance through cosmic time. Hydrogen tracing back to the
beginning of all things. Heavier elements that were forged inside stars that
existed long before even our own. We are, quite literally a part of the
Universe. The circumstances that allow any of us to exist at all are almost impossible
to comprehend. That I could be so lucky fills the void within me. No matter how
fleeting this life may be, I don’t intend to waste it worrying about what it
all means. That I am here means that my life has a purpose.
Sagan, Carl. Cosmos.
Random House. 1980.
Sagan, Carl. Pale
Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Random House, 1994.
Tyson, Neil deGrasse
and Lindsey Nyx Walker. To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic
Discovery. National Geographic, 2023.
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